Do the ashes count if they form less of a cross and more of...a Starfleet logo (as in Star Trek)? Well, it (Exhibit A) will have to do. My sister (Exhibit B), in the meantime, received the perfect, well-defined, very forthright symbol of redemption on her forehead this Ash Wednesday. Either way, we're in Lent now! And as the initial readings for the season remind us, it's a season for prayer, fasting (oops, almost typed "feasting"; too much Mardi Gras over here!), and works of mercy. That got me thinking about one of my patron saints, a veritable prodigy of fasting: John the Baptist.
It struck me only today that while John the Baptist is our Advent guide, he is rather marginal to Lent, except as a model of fasting (or prayer, when you focus on his life in the desert, which the early Church considered the place of prayer par excellence). John's mission was to prepare the way for the "one who comes after," the "one greater" than he. And that is Advent, plain as day. Lent, however, has a different focus. In Lent, it is as though John has led us to the Lord Jesus, and now we have a decision to make: to follow or not to follow. To follow on our own terms is not to follow Christ, but to follow our own path, with a bit of Christly decoration. Jesus makes that clear in the various "hard sayings" we find scattered throughout the Gospels, especially that winsome invitation to "deny yourself, take up your cross every day, and follow me."
That doesn't mean making life miserable. Sometimes it means accepting life as it is and finding God in suffering.
Scores of people started joining us weekly for an online Lenten book study of a new book with that very title:
Finding God in Suffering. Sessions are free, and meet every Wednesday night at 7 CST on Zoom. If you'd like to be invited, please message me by email or by sending your email address in a comment (that I will NOT post). You would have only missed two sessions, I think. Sorry I forgot to mention this earlier. If you join, you will get links to the earlier sessions. This coming Wednesday we will have the author with us, so that will be a good time to join. (And it gives you time to get the book;
Here is an Associates link if you must use Amazon; otherwise, you can
order direct from the sisters.)
Either way, solo or with an online study group, it's one way to learn how to "take up your cross every day" to follow Jesus.
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